Fair Grove 4th of July 1893

I was recently reading one of Lucille Morris Upton's "Good Ol' Days" columns from the Springfield Leader and Press in the early 1960s in which she was recalling traditional Fourth of July celebrations in her hometown of Dadeville when she was a little girl in the pre-World War I years. But she also happened to mention a Fourth of July celebration in Fair Grove many years earlier that went awry when the fireworks exploded prematurely just as they were getting ready to be set off. In 1893, according to Upton, Fair Grove was was getting ready to set off a fireworks display from the cupola of the school building when the first rocket went off and ignited a whole, big pile of bombs, Roman candles, rockets, and other pieces of fireworks stacked nearby. "The cupola was blown off the building, a man was tossed off the roof," and "a woman was thrown from a nearby buggy," recalled Ms. Upton. A piece of wood hit a second man and broke three of his ribs, but no one suffered severe injuries. "The rockets hissed and boomed in every direction. They ignited  some of the fancy, frilly summer dresses of the girls and women in the crowd and there was a wild stampede."
I decided to see if I could find anything else about this ill-fated fireworks display in Fair Grove. It seems the Fourth of July celebration started off in good fashion during the day. At least 3,000 people gathered for the festivities, which kicked off about noon, and there was enough food left over from the midday meal to feed another 3,000. One newspaper noted, "Fair Grove has grown from an insignificant little hamlet into quite a bustling, busy town."
A rain storm came up about noon but didn't last long. It served only to cool things off a little bit for the orators who gave speeches during the afternoon. Among the speakers were Professor W. C.  Myrick and Professor J. C. Freeman. "The line of march from from town to the grove where the speaking took place was charming and showed that elaborate preparations had been made. The various states were represented by girls from 8 to 14 years of age, arrayed in red, white and blue, and each pretty maiden was accompanied by a boy bearing the national banner. The brass band from Ebenezer furnished excellent music for the occasion."
J. A. Hartley read the Declaration of Independence "in a clear voice and an impressive manner." Grand marshal M. A. Fawcett gave the welcome address, and Professor Arthur Bryant, "a brainy young teacher" delivered a well-received address that showed he had the "making of a No. 1 orator."
"The beautiful grove where the ceremonies occurred was filled with people," concluded a July 5 report in the Springfield Leader, "who had come out to have a good old-fashioned time and they had it. It may safely be said that the Fourth at Fair Grove was in every respect a glorious success and eclipsed any former event of the kind in the history of the town."
But that was before the nighttime fireworks display, which turned into a disaster. The July 6th edition of the Leader filled in the details that were missing from its previous day's issue. J. W. Hine and John Self were in charge of the fireworks, and they had everything set to go when, as Lucille Morris Upton described many years later, the first sky rocket went off igniting the whole stack of nearby fireworks. "The men were precipitated two stories to the ground, and the college building was on fire. There was a crowd of 2,000 on the spot, and as the vicious rockets hissed in every direction the dresses of the ladies and girls were frequently ignited and a panic ensued.... For a few moments there was a wild and disorderly stampede for places of refuge."
The fire threatened to destroy the school but was soon extinguished. Still, "a feeling of gloom and disappointment settled down over the little city on account of the disastrous conclusion of the day's exercises."
On July 8, the newspaper published another update, giving the condition of those who had been injured in the fireworks mishap. Joe Hine, who'd not only been blown off the building to the ground but had also had his clothing burned from his body, was "all right again." Mrs. James Butts, who had sustained serious bruises when she was blown from her buggy, was recovering rapidly, and the man who been hit by the stick of wood and had three ribs broken was doing "as well as could be expected."
Concluded the Leader, "Fair Grove's first attempt at a pyrotechnic celebration was a bad failure, but the good people of the town are sternly awaiting the revolution of the earth upon its axis and when July 4 rolls around again they will make a better showing."